Cutting through water: Eldreth qualifies for Jr. Nationals, breaks former Vols’ ACAC record

Tuesday

Jan 1, 2013 at 6:24 PMJan 1, 2013 at 6:27 PM

Oak Ridge Atomic City Aquatic Club swimmer Kent Eldreth, 17, had a record-setting weekend recently at a USA Swimming-sanctioned meet held in Brentwood.

Erik Groscost, Special to The Oak Ridger

Oak Ridge Atomic City Aquatic Club swimmer Kent Eldreth, 17, had a record-setting weekend recently at a USA Swimming-sanctioned meet held in Brentwood.

XCEL Aquatic Club of Brentwood held its annual December Classic Meet of Champions. The three-day, preliminary/final-styled meet featured many teams from across the state and was held at the Williamson County Indoor Sports Complex.

Swimming in arguably his best event — the 100 yard breaststroke — Kent blistered the field and a long-standing ACAC team record going the distance in 57.54 during the finals. During the swim Eldreth cut a remarkable 3.96 seconds off his previous best time. The time broke a record set in the early 1990s by Steve McGrath who went on to swim for the University of Tennessee.

In addition to the 100, Eldreth cut 6.78 seconds off his previous best in the 200 breaststroke going that distance in a speedy 2:09.43. The two times qualify him for the Junior Nationals swim meet later in the year.

Eldreth wasn’t the only one making waves in the pool for ACAC though. As a team, Oak Ridge had a very impressive showing. They compiled 233 best times out of 370 swims for an improvement of 63 percent.

Many Atomic City swimmers obtained Senior Sectional, Age-Group Sectional and Southeastern Swimming championship qualifying times at this meet.

ACAC has been hard at work over the holiday break putting in massive yardage as it preps for its upcoming meets and the late winter training taper in preparation for the late February and March championship meets.

Next up for ACAC is the Pilot Winter Invitational Jan. 18-20 at the Allan Jones Aquatic Center at the University of Tennessee.

Oak Ridge will then come back home for the commemorative Lois Weir Invitational Feb. 1-3 at the Civic Center.